As the UK joins the air war on Islamic State in Syria, the government will be updating the public on its version of events, detailing what it believes has been hit. But a more nuanced picture may emerge from other entities equally interested in what is happening on the ground. To get a balanced view observers will be paying attention to multiple sources.

Official sources

The MoD has already been providing regular updates on airstrikes in Iraq. These updates are highly detailed in their own way, providing information on weapons used and targets hit. A press release on the first strikes in Syria described a patrol of Tornado jets and a Reaper drone that used Paveway IV laser-guided bombs to conduct strikes against six targets in the oilfield at Omar.

Centcom, which covers the US military in the Middle East, also provides regular updates on its strikes in Iraq and Syria and those carried out by the US-led coalition. As with the MoD, Centcom provides a certain level of detail, albeit couched in military jargon. Its press release of 1 December said coalition planes had carried two strikes against an Isis “tactical unit” and destroyed two of the group’s “fighting positions”.

Unofficial sources

Centcom and the MoD do not keep track of civilian casualties. Airwars is one of a number of groups attempting that very difficult task. It maintains an extensive database of all known allegations of civilians and friendly forces killed by the coalition since August 2014 – including photographs, videos, available biographies of the dead and links to all known sources.

Airwars draws heavily on data from US and allied militaries. In addition to tracking the strikes, it also reports – and where possible follows up on – credible allegations of civilian casualties. It says, in its provisional view, between 682 and 977 civilian non-combatants are likely to have been killed in 115 incidents to 1 December, where there is fair reporting publicly available of an event, and where coalition strikes were confirmed in the near vicinity on that date.

The Ceasefire Centre has also tried to keep track of civilian deaths from airstrikes in Iraq and Syria. In a report this week, it said more than 4,000 civilians have been killed in the anti-Isis bombing campaigns in Iraq and Syria during 2014-15. More than 2,800 resulted from bombardment by Iraqi forces, which was often indiscriminate.

Hundreds of other civilians have been killed in anti-Isis airstrikes carried out by members of the US-led international coalition and others. The higher number of deaths recorded by the centre stems from the fact that it is also monitoring civilian casualties from airstrikes by Syrian and Russian forces.

Based in the UK, the Observatory is the highest profile group to have had its genesis in local activist committees in the Syrian uprising, before it became a civil war. Using sources on the ground it provides information in both English and Arabic on fighting involving opposition forces and regime attacks on opposition-held areas. It is regularly cited in news reports.

Another UK-based NGO that documents deaths and disappearances in Syria. Its November 2015 report claimed 1,481 killings that month by the major parties in the conflict: government forces and allied militias; Russian forces; Kurdish forces; Islamist groups; armed opposition groups; and US-led coalition forces.

Raqqa in Syria is the de facto capital of Isis-held territory. Little is known about life in the city since Isis has banned private internet access among the 200,000 residents and barred them from leaving. Activists under the banner of Raqqa Is Being Silently Slaughtered have developed some counter-measures to the restrictions and provide a small window into life under Isis. The group documents checkpoints, empty streets, Isis regulations and the impact of coalition airstrikes.